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Start of French and Indian War - Battle of Jumonville Glen
In the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, Virginia militiamen under the command of George Washington ambush a French patrol. This is the first act of violence between the French and English in the colonies as part of the Seven Years War. -
Albany Congress
In June of 1754, representatives from seven colonies met with 150 Iroquois Chiefs in Albany, New York. The purposes of the Albany Congress were twofold; to try to secure the support and cooperation of the Iroquois in fighting the French, and to form a colonial alliance based on a design by Benjamin Franklin. The plan of union was passed unanimously. But when the delegates returned to their colonies with the plan, not a single provincial legislature would ratify it. -
The Proclmation of 1763
The proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. The King and his council presented the proclamation as a measure to calm the fears of the Indians, who felt that the colonists would drive them from their lands as they expanded westward. Many in the colonies felt that the object was to pen them in along the Atlantic seaboard where they would be easier to regulate. -
The Sugar Act
British Parliament passed a modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act (1733). The Sugar Act reduced the rate of tax on molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon and listed more foreign goods to be taxed including sugar, and further, regulated the export of lumber and iron. This caused the almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies and disrupted the colonial economy by reducing the markets to which the colonies could sell. -
The Currency Act
Parliament passed the Currency Act, effectively assuming control of the colonial currency system. The act prohibited the issue of any new bills and the reissue of existing currency. Parliament favored a "hard currency" system based on the pound sterling, but was not inclined to regulate the colonial bills. Rather, they simply abolished them. The colonies suffered a trade deficit with Britain to begin with and argued that the shortage of hard capital would further exacerbate the situation. -
The Stamp Act
Parliament imposed a direct tax on the colonies which required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp.These printed materials included legal documents, magazines, and newspapers. The stamp tax had to be paid in valid British currency, not in colonial paper money.The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the Seven Years' War. -
The Quartering Act of 1765
Lieutenant-General Thomas Gage and other British officers who had fought in the French and Indian War, had found it hard to persuade colonial assemblies to pay for quartering and provisioning of troops on the march. Most colonies had supplied provisions during the war, but the issue was disputed in peacetime. The Quartering Act of 1765 provided that Great Britain would house its soldiers in American barracks and public houses and that the colonial authorities would be required to pay the cost. -
The Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions
The resolves, introduced by Patrick Henry, claimed that in accordance with long established British law, Virginia was subject to taxation only by a parliamentary assembly to which Virginians themselves elected representatives. Since no colonial representatives were elected to the Parliament the only assembly legally allowed to raise taxes would be the Virginia General Assembly. The publishing of the Resolves created a growing public anger over the Stamp Act and lead to the Stamp Act Riots. -
The Declaratory Act
The American Colonies Act 1766, also known as the Declaratory Act, was an Act by Parliament which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act 1765. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act because boycotts were hurting British trade and used the declaration to justify the repeal and save face. The declaration stated that Parliament had the absolute power to make laws and changes to the colonial government, "in all cases cases whatsoever", even though the colonists were not represented in the Parliment. -
The Townshend Revenue Act
The Townshend Revenue Act placed taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea.The purpose was to raise revenue in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges so that they would be independent of colonial rule and to establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies. This was the first of five acts which were met with resistance in the colonies, prompting the occupation of Boston by British troops in 1768. -
Boston Non-Importation Agreement
Merchants in the colonies, some of them smugglers, organized economic boycotts to put pressure on their British counterparts to work for repeal of the Townshend Acts. Boston merchants organized the first non-importation agreement, which called for merchants to suspend importation of certain British goods effective 1 January 1769. Merchants in other colonial ports, including New York City and Philadelphia, eventually joined the boycott. -
British Troops Land in Boston
The newly created American Customs Board was seated in Boston, and so it was there that the Board concentrated on strictly enforcing the Townshend Acts.The acts were so unpopular in Boston that the Customs Board requested naval and military assistance to deal with resulting unrest. In addition to the fifty-gun warship HMS Romney, which arrived in Boston Harbor in May 1768, the first of four regiments of the British Army arrived and began disembarking in Boston on October 1, 1768. -
The Boston Massacre
The riot began when about 50 citizens attacked a British sentinel. Additional soldiers were called in, and these too were attacked, so the soldiers fired into the mob, killing three (a black sailor named Crispus Attucks, ropemaker Samuel Gray, and a mariner named James Caldwell), and wounding eight others, two of whom died later (Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr). At a subsequent trial, John Adams and Josiah Quincy II defended the British, leading to their acquittal and release. -
The Gaspee Affair
On June 9, 1772, a local vessel out of Newport baited the HMS Gaspee and led it into shallow waters near Warwick. The Gaspee ran aground at a place that is now known as Gaspee Point. A party of fifty-five, led by John Brown, planned an attack on the ship. The following evening they surrounded and boarded the Gaspee, wounding Duddington and capturing the entire crew. The Gaspee was looted and then burned. Though the identities of the perpetrators were widely known, no arrest was ever made. -
The Tea Act
The Tea Act, passed by Parliament was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The radical leaders in America found reason to believe that this act was a maneuver to buy popular support for the taxes already in force. The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants. -
The Boston Tea Party
This event was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston against the policies of the British and the Tea Act. A group of 30 to 130 men, some dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded three vessels ladened with tea and dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water. Dressing as Mohawk warriors was a very specific and symbolic choice which showed that the Sons of Liberty identified with America, over their official status as subjects of Great Britain.
